Thanks. Given the trends, my point that the problem is fuels left in place by arrogant EPA type policies -- and not a fictional increase in temperatures -- is even more pronounced.
Posted on 08/08/2013 7:43:49 AM PDT by Avoiding_Sulla
Rising ocean waters. Bigger and more frequent forest fires. More brutally hot summer days.
These aren't the usual predictions about global warming based on computer forecasts. They're changes already happening in California, according to a detailed new report issued Thursday by the California Environmental Protection Agency.
Climate change is "an immediate and growing threat" affecting the state's water supplies, farm industry, forests, wildlife and public health, the report says. The 258-page document was written by 51 scientists from the University of California, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, among other agencies and institutions.
"Climate change is not just some abstract scientific debate," said California EPA Secretary Matt Rodriquez. "It's real, and it's already here."
Most Californians seem to agree. In a poll last month by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, 63 percent of the state's residents said the effects of global warming are already being felt, while 22 percent said they will happen in the future. Eleven percent said they will never happen.
Although California has done more than nearly every other state to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases, the report found, if it were a country, it would still rank as the 13th largest source of greenhouse gases in the world, ahead of France, Brazil, Australia and Saudi Arabia.
What the public may not realize, experts say, is how extensive the impact of climate change already is.
Since 1950, the report found, the three worst forest fire years in California -- measured by acres burned -- all have occurred in the past decade: 2003, 2007 and 2008. And the average number of acres scorched every year since 2000 is almost double the average of the previous 50 years -- 598,000 acres annually now, compared with 264,000 acres a year then.
"A report like this is Paul Revere. It provides an early warning, an early indicator of the challenges we face," said Matthew Kahn, a UCLA economics professor.
Kahn said that just as in past eras when Americans rose to meet threats, entrepreneurs in California will see opportunities to help reduce the impacts of climate change while making money, through industries such as electric vehicles, wind turbines, ocean desalination projects, better air conditioning systems and denser housing in coastal areas, which will remain cooler than inland areas as both warm in the decades to come.
"It's not like the Titanic where we just collide with the iceberg," Kahn said. "Most people want their children and grandchildren to have a great quality of life. We are going to get future Amazons, Apples and Facebooks out of this that will address the challenges."
But while opportunities may be going up, so are mercury readings.
Since 1895, annual average temperatures in California have increased about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit and continue to rise, the report found. The length and severity of summer heat waves are increasing.
The sea level at the Golden Gate, home to the oldest continually operating tidal gauge in North America, rose 8 inches over the past century as the world's glaciers and ice sheets have begun melting. Higher seas increase the risk of floods during storms in low-lying communities around San Francisco Bay, from Treasure Island to Alviso.
At Lake Tahoe, there are now 30 fewer days a year compared with a century ago when air temperatures average below freezing, the report found. And while 52 percent of the precipitation at the lake fell as snow in 1910, today only 34 percent does.
"Most Californians get it," said Kathryn Phillips, executive director of Sierra Club California. "The thing I find so frustrating is how bought in elected officials are to the belief they can't do the right thing because it will disturb oil companies and some of the most powerful interests in the state."
Among other changes, Phillips said, the state needs more incentives for solar and renewable energy and mandatory rules requiring more energy-efficient buildings.
In 2006, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a landmark law, AB32, requiring California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, a drop of about 25 percent.
So far, however, emissions are up 3 percent since 1990, although they have dipped in the past five years because of the Great Recession and increased use of high-mileage cars as well as solar and wind power.
When it comes to the state's water supply, there's some good news: There is no clear trend in the amount of precipitation over the past 100 years, the report found. So California isn't getting less rain.
But the Sierra Nevada's glaciers have, depending on their location, shrunk from 22 percent to 69 percent over the past century. And spring runoff to the Sacramento River has decreased by 9 percent. That's because more precipitation is falling as rain rather than snow during California's warmer winters, the report found. And less runoff means less water for farms and cities.
Rodriquez said the amount of warming in the coming decades can be limited if the state, nation and world do more to reduce emissions and transition away from fossil fuels.
"We're doing what we can in California to address climate change," he said. "It's our hope that we can avoid some of the more extreme effects."
Paul Rogers covers environmental issues and resources. Contact him at 408-920-5045. Follow him at Twitter.com/PaulRogersSJMN.
But I still try to do it in one on one conversation.
Does anyone have the patience to partially fisk this crap here?
How about if each reader takes a paragraph, or even just a phrase, so that the thread becomes one big fisking?
I'll start with this one.
[Each of the more recent years have seen our public lands overwhelmed with exotic species and uncleared brush -- all as a matter of policy. None of that is EVER written in these "news" reports as the cause of the fires -- providing the fuel through human-hating policies.]
And the average number of acres scorched every year since 2000 is almost double the average of the previous 50 years -- 598,000 acres annually now, compared with 264,000 acres a year then. [This is like an arsonist crowing of how much damage he's caused.]
If it falls into the sea, then there goes 52 EV for democrats.
In the Pacific Northwest, the Indians used periodically set their own forest fires whenever the undergrowth got too thick.
“A new peer-reviewed paper published in Energy & Environment analyzes 24 years of data from the European Meteosat weather satellite and finds global temperatures decreased over the period 1982-2006”
“Climate change is “an immediate and growing threat” affecting the state’s water supplies, farm industry, forests, wildlife and public health, the report says”.
I’d say GOVERNMENT is the immediate and growing threat be it local, state, or federal!!!!!
Good God! These anti-reality termites do persist, don’t they? These intellectual Warmers are idiots of the highest degree. I doubt that they will ever face reality without attempting to undermine, distort or obfiscating it.
California is quite simply the world’s largest insane asylum.
This will cover the years not included in the dataset I linked to upthread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3051872/posts?page=9#9
I wish I knew how to post the chart itself, but my link brings you directly to it.
Ohmigosh - we have been talking about how COLD summer is this year in Los Angeles. It’s mid-August, it’s been 79 and 81, quite lovely - fog until early afternoon, cool nights. The EPA is desperatte.
Yeah, it's making the government more stupid.
Of course terrorist have nothing to do with fires. Fault lines and tectonics have nothing to do with earth quakes and water only rises on one side of the oceans. Volcanoes don’t put out any appreciable CO2.
We are actually having our coolest summer in years.
Gee that's odd, since there hasn't been any for a decade, and in fact we're now experiencing global cooling.
As for hotter summers that is so much BS. CA has had at least the last two summers, including this one, at lower temps than normal. Right now, in August our hottest month, Northern CA is seeing temps in the upper 80s(predicted to be 85 today)I have never seen temps this low in August, I am 71 and have lived here most of my life, normally we get a two or three week period of above 100. July was also cooler than normal for most of the month.
So much for "global warming".
re: “California is quite simply the world’s largest insane asylum.”
Putting a wall around California to keep the lunatics out of the rest of the country might possibly be more productive than a border between us and Mexico. Unfortunately, the internet prevents us from us from blocking California’s flow of insanity through the Ethernet.
Thanks. Given the trends, my point that the problem is fuels left in place by arrogant EPA type policies -- and not a fictional increase in temperatures -- is even more pronounced.
Yea, on the internet, if it originates in California it should have a warning label and disclaimer page before you can open it since it’s likely to cause harm.
re: “Yea, on the internet, if it originates in California it should have a warning label and disclaimer page before you can open it since it’s likely to cause harm.”
Excellent idea.
Did the sea level change at the GGB or perhaps one or two major quakes over the last century moved the LAND?
Acres burned increased - what changes took place in fire-fighting approach (e.g. let it burn vs aggressive tactics), what logging changes and forest management changes that resulted in more fuel per acre occurred?
There are plenty of factors to be analyzed for each claim of doom.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.